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New Lit on the Block :: Three Coyotes

Three Coyotes publishes the work of our best poets, writers and artists in response to the environment, the American West, current issues, animals, the arts, imagination and survival. The staff behind the publication includes Joan Fox, editor, Judy Eddy, business manager/proofreading & editing, and Peter Schnittman, technical support/design & layout.

Issue One features fiction by Meg Files, Alex Kuo, and Gerald Vizenor, nonfiction by Joan Burbick, BK Loren, Heidi MacDonald, and Steve Pavlik, poetry by Francisco X. Alarcon, janice Gould, David Ignatow, Yaedi Ignatow, Adrian C. Louis, and Afaa Michael Weaver, and photography by Wesley Rothman and a thirteen-photograph portfolio with artist statement by Chuck Fox.

Looking ahead, Issue Two will feature an exclusive essay by Janay Brun about her experience as a whistleblower reporting the roles and actions leading to the killing of Macho B, the last known wild jaguar in the United States; an interview with a wildlife rehabilitator; an essay about rattlesnakes; and, more.

Issue Two will also include a “Subscriber Forum Topic” for essays, poems, short stories, and artwork reflecting upon the difference between hunting and killing.

These and all general submissions are accepted via email only during the months of October, November, April and May.

[Issue One Cover, Cane Creek Branch, Utah, Chuck Fox, photographer]

READ: Poet-to-Poet Translation Exchange

Each spring Tamaas, a cross-cultural arts organizaion, hosts a week-long poetry translation workshop at Reid Hall, the home to Columbia University’s Paris study abroad program. Poets of different nationalites and generations, based or sojourning in Paris, are invited by Tamaas to work in pairs with other poets to translate each other’s work.

This poet-to-poet exchange of approaches to translation is a distinctive feature of this cross-cultural workshop, and draws upon participants’ capacities as writers to handle the challenges of rendering poetry in another language. Students and the general public are welcome to attend the closing night reading of translations-in-progress. The fruits of this workshop are published annually, as the volume entitled READ through 1913 Press.

The 7th Annual Tamaas READ Translation Seminar will take place June 21-25, 2011. The public reading will be June 25th at 19h Reid Hall, 4, rue de Chevreuse 75006.

The 2011 Participants include: Oscarine Bosquet, Norma Cole, Jean Daive, Sandra Doller, Ben Doller, Jérôme Game, Liliane Giraudon, Michelle Noteboom, Michael Palmer, and Cole Swensen.

Mississippi Review Prizes 2011

The Winter 2011 issue of Mississippi Review is devoted to the winners and finalists of the 2011 Mississippi Review Prize:

Fiction Winner
Rachel Swearingen, “Felina”

Finalists in Fiction
Cheryl Alu, “Generally Recognized as Safe”
Laurie Blauner, “In the Real World”
Elisabeth Cohen, “Irrational Exuberance”
Peter Grimes, “Head Game”
Michael Pearce, “Dragon Arm”
Jamie Poissant, “The Cost of Living”

Poetry Winner
Harry Waitzman, “The Red Dress”

Finalists in Poetry
J.P. Dancing Bear, “Genesis in Retrograde”
Susan Browne, “A Brief History of My Life”
Johanna Dominquez, “When There is Death Everywhere”
Paul Doty, “Box Kite”
Ansel Elkins, “Ghost at My Door”
Bryan Emory-Johnson, “Mose T.”
Julie Hanson, “Grab the Far End”
Elizabeth Harmon, “The Danger of Being a Sister”
Sara Hong, “Porky Pigs”
Rich Ives, “An Extraordinary Display of Restraint Concerning Her Festival of Big Sticks”
Mary Emma Koles, “Parched”
Debra Marquart, “Nil Ductility”
Elisabeth Murawski, “Lost Art”
Patricia Colleen Murphy, “Good Fences”
Frank Ortega, “Laundry”
Nancy K. Pearson, “Margalo”
Laura Read, “After the Hysterectomy”
Jonathan Rice, “In the Old Metropolitan Hospital”
Jesse Schweppe, “July Rain, Amherst”
John Surowiecki, “Janice, Who Was Tall”
Jennie Thompson, “Animals”
Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, “Often, not Always”
Harry Waitzman, “Fish Ball Soup and Flowers”
Maya Jewell Zeller, “My Brother’s Fish”
Kristin Hotelling Zona, “The Gut”

Help Tuscaloosa Writers

From Dinty Moore, Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog:

Help Tuscaloosa: Brief Essays from Michael Martone and Wendy Rawlings

One week ago, a massive tornado tore through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home of a vibrant writing community associated with the U of A’s esteemed MFA program. Brevity has been gifted with stellar essays from Tuscaloosa students and alums over the years, and our next issue will feature essays from Michael Martone and Wendy Rawlings.

Martone’s essay was written just days after the deadly tornado touched down, killing at least 40 individuals and leaving many, town and gown alike, homeless; Rawlings’ poignant look at her Tuscaloosa neighborhood was written before the storm, and sat in our submissions queue on the evening the tornado turned the city’s neighborhoods inside out.

We’ve decided to extend the reach of our Tuscaloosa benefit by releasing these two essays one week early: MARTONE ESSAY and RAWLINGS ESSAY. Please spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, or whatever method you choose. These beautiful essays deserve as wide a readership as possible, and we hope that after reading them, you will make a donation to Give Tuscaloosa tornado relief or to the West Alabama Food Bank.

Gulf Coast Celebrate 25

This year marks the 25th anniversary for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. To celebrate, the publication includes a Visual Art Retrospective – featuring full-color works of a dozen artists from the past 25 years, and “Looking Back: Two Essays on LIterary INfluence and the Craft of Writing”: Phillip Lopate’s “Hazlitt on Hating” and Michael Parker’s “Catch and Release: What We Can Learn From the Semicolon (Even If We Choose Never to Use it In a Sentence).”

Bombay Gin and Harry Smith’s Anthology

The newest issue of Bombay Gin (37.1) is a tribute issue to the final years of Harry Smith at The Naropoa Institute. “Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music,” as the issue is titled from Smith’s own anthology, features poetry, music, and fiction from Kerouac School associates organized into the three sections Smith devised for his Anthology: Ballads, Social Music, and Songs, as well as “an extra chapter, ‘Secret Volume,’ for the originally never-released fourth set of vinyl discs. There are interviews with Steven Taylor, Greil Marcus, and Daniel Pinchbeck on the Anthology.”

See the Bombay Gin website for the full editorial and table of contents.

JOT Writers on Food

The Neighborhood Writing Alliance publication Journal of Ordinary Thought focuses its Winter 2011 on food: “I Always Like Plenty of Napkins.” From the introduction: “There is very little about food that remains unexplored in this delectable volume of reflections, prose, and poetry. And because food arguably stimulates our sensorium like nothing else possibly can, these texts give powerful expression to the entire range of our sentient existence.”

Read the full introduction at JOT as well as two sample poems, “By the Roaring Fire” by Allen McNair and “MORE THAN SOUP” by Hector Vasquez.

BWR Contest Winners

The Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Black Warrior Review includes the winners for the Sixth-Ever Fiction and Poetry Contests: Phillip Tate, first place fiction; Kimberly Burwick, first place poetry; and the First-Ever Nonfiction Contest winner: Molly Schultz, first place.

Black Warrior Review’s 2012 Contest is open for submissions until September 1, 2011. Winners in each genre receive a $1,000 prize and publication in the Spring/Summer issue.

Donald Bartheleme Prize Winners

Gulf Coast Summer/Fall 2011 includes the winners of their 2010 Barthelme Prize for Short Prose, as chosen by Joe Bonomo. Lillian-Yvonne Bertram won first place for “Animals Do Not Have Delusional Acts.” Honorable mentions were Benjamin Glass for “Tennessee Apology,” and Robert Thomas for “Picnic.”

Good Art Bad Art: Is There A Difference?

The Spring-Summer issue of Salmagundi boldly takes on the question of “Good Art Bad Art: Is There A Difference?” in the following symposium:

“Vagrant Thought About Quality” by Jed Perl
“Aesthetic Values” by Rochelle Gurstein
“Patriotism, Autonomy and Subversion” by Benjamin Barber
“On Emily Dickinson” by Brenda Wineapple
“The Attack on Beauty” by Robert Boyers
“Art and Values: What is Possible” by Charles Molesworth
“Why is a Good Poem Good?” by James Longenbach
“On Bad Writing” by Alix Ohlin
“Words in Search of a Masterpiece” by Mitchell Cohen

Counting Citizens: AALR Examines Race & Census

The Winter/Spring 2011 issue of The Asian American Literary Review includes a forum in response to “Counting Citizens”: “According to the 2000 census, the first to include the option of checking multiple race boxes, nearly seven million American identify and multiracial. One in six babies born in Seattle, Sacramento, and San Antonio is multiracial. Now the 2010 census is here. One imagines the census-taker, going steadily from door to door, perhaps surprised at what she finds. What of the artist, canvassing the same neighborhoods, equally concerned with representation and identity – what does she see? What response does she fashion?”

The Forum allows Jeffry Yang, C. Dale YOung, and Srikanth Reddy to give first and second responses in a discussion on the topic.

Also included with the magazine is a DVD of the making of Kip Fulbeck’s Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids (also available on the author’s website).

The video is a short (5 minute) but insightful, with clips on the 1967 Loving vs. Virginia case that ended race-based marriage restrictions (Fulbeck’s parents were not legally allowed to be married in the US in 1965), the 2000 decision of Bob Jones University to end its ban on interracial dating, and the 2009 refusal by a judge in Louisiana to marry an interracial couple out of concern of “what would happen to the children.” To which Fulbeck responds: “What would happen to the children? They might become President.”

Odyssey Fans: College Lit Special Issue

College Literature Volume 38 Number 2, Spring 2011 is a special issue dealing Homer’s Odyssey and more specifically with the second half of the Odyssey (books 13-24), which in Homeric scholarship has been much debated since P.W. Harsh’s 1950 article “Penelope and Odysseus in Odyssey XIX.” The special issue includes essays by Edwin D. Floyd (“Linguistic, Mycenaean, and Iliadic Traditions Behind Penelope’s Recognition of Odysseus”), Bruce Louden (“Is There Early Recognitions between Penelope and Odysseus?; Book 19 in the Larger Context of the Odyssey“), Steve Reece (“Penelope’s ‘Early Recognition’ of Odysseus from a Neoanalytic and Oral Perspective”), Scott Richardson (“The Case for the Defense”), John Vlahos (“Homer’s Odyssey: Penelope and the Case for Early Recognition”), and Naoko Yamagata (“Penelope and Early Recognition: Vlahos, Harsh and Eustathius”).

BULL Needs Votes to Win

Jarrett Haley at BULL Men’s Fiction has asked readers to participate in the Dockers $100,000 national “Wear the Pants” contest that takes place until May 1 on Facebook. BULL has got a great plan for the money, including a Best of Men’s Fiction anthology series, expansion into e-books and other digital platform, as well as online and print journals. In addition, BULL is developing a Young Adult division, Buckaroo Books, to bring a new generation of readers to men’s fiction. Visit VOTE BULL for more information and links.

Why Couldn’t THIS Have Been on the Final Exam?

This spring’s final exam is from Paste Magazine: 23 Band Names Inspired by Literature. Below are the band names – can you identify the source text? Visit Paste for annotated answers.

1. Titus Andronicus
2. The Doors
3. The Velvet Underground
4. Modest Mouse
5. Steely Dan
6. Belle and Sebastian
7. Esben and the Witch
8. Steppenwolf
9. Veruca Salt
10. Oryx and Crake
11. The Romany Rye
12. Gogol Bordello
13. The Fall
14. The Boo Radleys
15. Heaven 17
16. Campag Velocet
17. Moloko
18. As I Lay Dying
19. Of Mice and Men
20. Opeth
21. Art of Noise
22. Stryper
23. Marillion

Launching Late Night Library

Late Night Library is a monthly podcast devoted to new voices in poetry and fiction by Erin Hoover and Paul Martone. Recorded from Brooklyn, New York, and Portland, Oregon, each episode of Late Night Library is a conversation about an emerging writer whose talent and creativity warrant a greater audience, featuring first books whenever possible.

The first episode introduces Paul, a fiction writer, and Erin, a poet, both graduates of the University of Oregon’s MFA creative writing program. Late Night Library is a cross-country continuation of the informal conversations the two would have outside of class. Erin and Paul hope both readers and writers feel ‘invited’ into these discussions. Each episode will end with a preview of the next month’s authors and works to encourage the audience to read ahead and better be able to connect with the conversation.

The inaugural episode, to debut April 30, 2011, features poet Kara Candito and her first book Taste of Cherry (2009, Bison Books).

Late Night Library is planning two parties/readings for the date of the launch, one in Brooklyn and a second concurrent event in Portland, Oregon. Visit Late Night Library on Facebook for more information.

Buy a Lit Mag – Help the Elephants

Benjamin C. Krause, Publisher, Diamond Point Press, writes: “. . .we are in the process of moving all our journals away from GoDaddy over the elephant debacle. . .[and] until the end of April, we are donating 100% of our profits from sales of Muscle & Blood (issue 1) and Liebamour (issue 2) in any format (print or e-book) to a charity called Elephants Without Borders, which works for elephant conservation in Africa.” Visit the individual journal sites from Diamond Point Press for more information.

[Hover is a domain service recommended by Leo Laporte that is offering free “valet” service – meaning they will do all the tech work for your transfer – until May 15.]

Five Chapters is Just That

FiveChapters is a online venture edited by Davide Daley, curator 20-Minute Fiction in issue 12 of McSweeney’s, creator of the Tag-team Fiction series for The Journal News, and former features editor of Details magazine.

FiveChapters publishes a five-part story every week, serial-style, beginning on Monday and followed by a new installment each weekday.

Recent works and authors include “The Disappearance of Miranda Željko” by Rebecca Makkai and “Sleeping With John Updike” by Julian Barnes. The archives are packed with works (which can be read in a single click) by authors Lauren Grodstein, Lori Ostlund, Adam Davies, Jennine Capó Crucet, Samantha Peale, Victor Lodato, Tania James, Joe Pernice, Dwight Allen, Susannah Felts, Peyton Marshall, Nick Ekkizogloy, Nancy Mauro, Ashley Warlick, Tod Goldberg, David Gordon, Dawn Ryan, Jami Attenberg, Marisa Matarazzo, Paul Yoon, Brent Krammes, Priscilla Becker, John Jodzio, Angi Becker Stevens, Gina Frangello, Dallas Hudgens, Kevin Grauke, Robin Antalek, Edan Lepucki, Katharine Weber, and Eric Puchner.

FiveChapters accepts story submissions online through Submishmash. FiveChapters stories work best between 5000 and 10,000 words.

Iambik Audiobooks We All Can Love

Iambik is an audiobook publisher making “audio out of books we love.” Luckily, what they seem to love most of all are books published by small and independent presses, currently including Akashic Books, Biblioasis, Coach House Books, Coffee House Press, Cursor/Red Lemonade, Graywolf Press, HandE Publishers Ltd, Hard Case Crime, Invisible Publishing, McSweeney’s, Minotaur Books, OR Books, Soft Skull Press, Soho Press, Tin House Books, Tyrus Books, and Unbridled Books.

Iambik authors include Preston L. Allen, Helen Benedict, Katharine Beutner, D. C. Brod, Rick Collignon, Bernard DeVoto, Laird Hunt, Andrew Kaufman, Lynn Kostoff, Luna Lemus, Kristin Hughes, Robert Lennon, Gordon Lish, Dustin Long, Jon Loomis, Lydia Millet, Arthur Nersesian, Rebecca Pawel, Max Phillips, Anna Quon, Sam Savage, Seymour Shubin, Ray Smith, Akimitsu Takagi, Keith Temple, Lynne Tillman, James Greer, Hans Eichner, Joe Coomer, Jessica Westhead, and Alexander MacLeod.

All books are available in mp3 and m4b formats.

Poets on Adoption

“Adoption is complicated. Poetry is complicated.” These are the lead lines for a new literary blog curated by Eileen R. Tabios, Poets on Adoption. The site features works by “poets with adoption experiences” as they “mine the intersections of poetry and adoption,” sharing some of their experiences with adoption and how it may or may not affect their poems and/or poetics. Poets on Adoption will be updated over time as more poets send in their contributions.

The inaugural post includes works by Allison S. Moreno, Amanda Mason, CB Follett, Christina Pacosz, Craig Watson, Dana Collins, Dana R. LePage, Dee Thompson, Eileen R. Tabios, Giavanna Munafo, Jan VanStavern, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Jim Benz, Joy Katz, Judith Roitman, Laura McCullough, Lee Herrick, Marcella Durand, Mary Anne Cohen, Michael D Snediker, Michele Leavitt, Natalie Knight, Ned Balbo, Nick Carbo, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Rosemary Starace, Samantha Franklin, Sharon Mesmer, and Susan M. Schultz.

Poets on Adoption is “always looking for more POETS WITH ADOPTION EXPERIENCE to participate in this project.” Visit the site for more information.

Sad News

Our hearts are broken with this news of the loss of our dear friend and colleague Jeanne Leiby, writer and editor of The Southern Review. TSR‘s blog, Lagniappe, pothumously published Jeanne’s blog “Poems I’m Glad I Know” in honor of National Poetry Month – now as a tribute to Jeanne. Strength and peace to family, friends, and colleagues at this time.

Memorious Art Song Contest Winner

The winner of the Memorious 2nd Annual Art Song Contest is poet Katie Peterson, who will have her work set by guest composer Luke Gullickson. The work will be performed live as part of the Singers On New Ground series in Chicago, and a recording of the work will be available in issue 17 of Memorious along with poems by finalists Sean Hill, Ishion Hutchinson, and Hyejung Kook. Last year’s contest winner is available for listening in issue 14: composer Randall West’s settings of Jill McDonough’s poems.

Community Published Poetry: allwritethen

allwritethen is a literary endeavor out of Columbia College Chicago that intends to be a “community published” magazine. Anyone can publish anything so long as they follow a few simple rules. A voting system allows readers to vote on poems they like so that every six months, the ‘put-it-together people’ will publish the 40 most popular poems in a print issue.

AROHO Spring 2011 Orlando Prize Winners

A Room of Her Own has announced the Spring 2011 Orlando Prize Winners. Winning submissions and excerpts of the finalists will be posted on AROHO’s website following publication in the Los Angeles Review.

Creative Nonfiction
“Six Bright Horses and the Land of the Dead”
Jen Silverman

Short Fiction
“A Strange Woman”
Laura Brown-Lavoie

Poetry
“The Green Season”
Jennifer Beebe

Flash Fiction
“A Woman’s Glory”
Ashley Kunsa

A full list of finalists for each category is available on the AROHO website.

Fall 2011 Orlando Cycle Begins April 15, 2011
Genre judges to be announced
Online Application Deadline July 31, 2011

New Lit on the Block :: All Rights Reserved

All Rights Reserved is an online annual publishing works from emerging and established writers and artists. Although volunteer-run, the publication enlists a full editorial and production staff: Ryan Jones, Managing Editor; matt robinson, Senior Editor; Kathryn Bjornson, Editor (Non-Fiction & Poetry); Trina Hubley, Editor (Fiction & Visual Storytelling); Jonathan Bjornson, Editorial Assistant; Afton Doubleday, Creative Director; Atilla Vass, Acquisitions Editor & Sales/Distribution Manager; Kristen Sutherland, Sponsorship & Advertising Manager.

The first issue features works by Lynn Atkinson, Jean Braithwaite, Trey Edgington, yaqoob ghaznavi, Emily Graff, Maria McInnis, Kimberley-Blue Muncey, Shari Narine, Melissa Plourde, Robin Richardson, Mark Sampson, Terry Sanville, Edith Speers, J. J. Steinfeld, Qiana Towns, Davide Trame, Yi-Mei Tsiang, Yassen Vassilev, Paul Vreeland, Darryl Whetter.

All Rights Reserved accepts previously unpublished poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, as well as literary stories told through visual art/photography. Deadline for submissions: May 31, 2011

Utne Reader Names 22nd Annual Independent Press Awards Nominees

Utne Reader 22nd Annual Independent Press Awards Nominees appear in the May-June issue, which is on newsstands April 19, and online at Utne.com. Winners will be featured in the July-August 2011 issue.

The nominees are:

General Excellence — The American Scholar, The Believer, High Country News, Mother Jones, Orion, The Sun, Wax Poetics, YES! Magazine

Best Writing — The American Scholar, The Believer, Brick, The Brooklyn Rail, Creative Nonfiction, Portland, The Sun, Tin House

Political Coverage — Dissent, In These Times, Mother Jones, The American Conservative, The American Prospect, The Nation, The New Republic, The Progressive

Arts Coverage — American Craft, Film Comment, Offbeat, The Oxford American, Public Art Review, Theme, Vintage Magazine, Wax Poetics

International Coverage — NACLA Report on the Americas, New Internationalist, New Statesman, Prospect, Red Pepper, The Wilson Quarterly, World Affairs, Z Magazine

Science/Technology Coverage — Alternatives, Discover, IEEE Spectrum, Johns Hopkins Public Health, Make, Miller-McCune, Science News, Technology Review

Social/Cultural Coverage — Bitch, Brain, Child, Gastronomica, Good, make/shift, mental _floss, Oregon Humanities, This Magazine

Environmental Coverage — Audubon, Conservation, Earth Island Journal, Environment, Environment Yale, High Country News, OnEarth, Orion

Body/Spirit Coverage — The Christian Century, Commonweal, Geez, Resurgence, Sojourners, Tikkun, Tricycle, YES! Magazine

What if…

New Orleans Review (v31n2) opens with this quote from James Whitehead in New Orleans Review, volume 1 number 4, summer 1969:

“What if the planet is being ruined by smoke and gas and oil? What if we’re killing the whales and eagles: killing even our natural symbols? What if shortly, by way of waste or the bombs, we don’t have us a good ole planet around any more? Where do we stage our tragedy and comedy then?”

100 Thousand Poets for Change – 2011

From organizer Michael Rothenberg:

100 THOUSAND POETS for CHANGE

“What kind of CHANGE are we talking about?”

The first order of change is for poets, writers, artists, anybody, to actually get together to create and perform, educate and demonstrate, simultaneously, with other communities around the world. This will change how we see our local community and the global community. We have all become incredibly alienated in recent years. We hardly know our neighbors down the street let alone our creative allies who live and share our concerns in other countries. We need to feel this kind of global solidarity. I think it will be empowering.

And of course there is the political/social change that many of us are talking about these days. There is trouble in the world. Wars, ecocide, the lack of affordable medical care, racism, the list goes on.

It appears that transformation towards a more sustainable world is a major concern and could be a global guiding principle for this event. Peace also seems to be a common cause. War is not sustainable. There is an increasing sense that we need to move forward and stop moving backwards. But I am trying not to be dogmatic. I am hoping that together we can develop our ideas of the “change/transformation” we are looking for as a group, and that each community group will decide their own specific area of focus for change for their particular event.

“I want to organize in my area. How do we begin to organize?”

100 Thousand Poets for Change will organize “participants” by local region, city, or state, and find individuals in each area who would like to organize their local event. Just let me know if you want to be an organizer by sending a message to me directly through Facebook, or to my e-mail: [email protected].

If you are an organizer for your community this means that first you will consider a location for the event and begin to contact people in your area who want to participate in the event. Participation means contacting the media, posting the event on the web, in calendars, newspapers, etc., reading poems, performing in general, supplying cupcakes and beer (it’s up to you), demonstrating, putting up an information table, inviting guest speakers, musicians, etc., organizing an art exhibit, and documenting the event (this is important, too), and cleaning up, of course.

Organizers and participants will create their own local event as an expression of who they are locally. Do they want a candlelight vigil or a circus, a march or a dance, do they want absolute silence, a group meditation on a main street; it’s up to the local organization. However, groups should be sure to hold some part of the event, if not all of it, outdoors, in public view. The point is to be seen and heard, not just stay behind closed walls. It is also important that the event be documented. Photos, videos, poems, journals, paintings! Documentation is crucial. The rest of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change want to hear what you have to say about change and enjoy your creativity too! The documentation will be shared through a blog/website that I will set up, a blog/website where groups can share and announce event information, as well as post photos, videos, poetry, art, and thoughts. But an event doesn’t have to involve tons of people. It can be just you (the organizer) and your pet, on a street corner, with a sign. Just let me know what you are planning! Every effort counts!

Each local organization determines what it wants to focus on, something broad like, peace, sustainability, justice, equality, or more specific causes like Health Care, or Freedom of Speech, or local environmental or social concerns that need attention in your particular area right now, etc. Organizations will then come up with a mission statement/manifesto that describes who they are and what they think and care about. When the whole event has taken place all the mission statements can be collected from around the world and, I hope, worked together into a grand statement of 100 Thousand Poets for Change.

New Lit on the Block :: StepAway Magazine

StepAway Magazine is a new, online literary magazine publishing “the best urban flash fiction and poetry by writers from across the globe.”

The title of the magazine draws inspiration from Frank O’ Hara’s landmark flâneur poem, A Step Away from Them.

Editor Darren Richard Carlaw says, “Our magazine is hungry for literature that evokes the sensory experience of walking in specific neighborhoods, districts or zones within a city. This is flânerie for the twenty-first century. Our aim is to become an online repository of walking narratives. Our writers will lead our readership through the streets of his or her chosen city. They will do so in one thousand words or less. There are no further rules. We want whatever you can share.”

Issue #1 now available online features works by Gem Andrews, Jaydn DeWald, David Gaffney, Kyle Hemmings, Matthew Hittinger, P.A. Levy, Joan McNerney, Tom Sheehan, Sarah Schulman, and Changming Yuan.

Dissertation Haiku

Dissertation Haiku is exactly that: dissertations in haiku form. Not holding true to more than syllable pattern, scholars are asked to submit discipline, name of institution, a sentence or two in plain English about what they do, and any email address or link.

Dissertation Haiku is the creation of Drew Steen who finished his Ph.D. in Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is now doing postdoctoral work in the Biology Department (microbiology section) and the Center for Geomicrobiology at Aarhus University in Denmark. As he puts it: “I’m currently in my eighth year of being paid to study how stuff rots in the ocean.”

Brick Street Poetry Prize Winners

On February 12, 2011, Brick Street Poetry celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Preseident-Elect Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural train in Zionsville, Indiana. Winner Shari Wagner’s poem, “Lincoln Field,” appears in the Winter 2011 issue of Tipton Poetry Journal, along with poems of finalists John Cardwell, Jared Carter, Joseph Heithaus, Jennifer Lemming and James Murdock.

The issue also features Rita Dahl’s “Haukka leikkii kyyhkysellä” self-translated from Finnish to English as ”A hawk plays with a pigeon.”

Digital Habitus

Habitus: A Diaspora Journal has created its first digital publication — a collection of some of the best writing from their first six print issues. Readers can purchase a copy as a DRM-free ePub, readable on the device of your choice supporting that format, or visit Amazon to get a copy formatted for Kindles. An iPad edition should be available soon in the iBookstore.

Podcasts :: Reading the World

Reading the World is an ongoing series of podcast discussions about the world of international literature, hosted by Chad W. Post (director of Open Letter Books) and Erica Mena (Spanish translator and poet). The programs include interview translators, publishers and writers and cover a range of translation-related issues. The first eight episodes feature Mark Schafer, Fady Joudah, Forrest Gander, Bill Johnston, Esther Allen, Suzanne Jill Levine, Susan Harris, and Lawrence Venuti.

New Lit on the Block :: Temporary Infinity

Edited by Andrew Fortier, Z.T. Burian, and Erin Jones, Temporary Infinity is a new online magazine of any and all forms that “Fill the White,” including short stories, flash fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, artwork, comics, plays, photographs.

The second issue went live March 1, and submissions are open for the June 1 quarterly installment. Future plans for the publication include print issues, if start-up funds can be raised, and the addition of film and reviews of books, poetry chapbooks and more.

Contributors to the first two issues include Robert Louis Henry, Elizabeth Dunphey, Omar Bakry, Damian Lanahan-Kalish, A.D. Wiegert, Ingrid Cruz, Colin James, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Thomas Sullivan, Jude Coulter-Pultz, Katie McLaurin, Bobbi Sinha-MoreyKat Urice, Michael Bourdaghs, Ariel Glasman, Alan Britt, Stacey Bryan, Subhakar Das, and Marika von Zellen.

Our Stories Contest Winners

Winners of the Our Stories 2011 Richard Bausch Short Story Prize appear in the Winter 2011 issue, now available full-text online. The winner is Richard Hartshorn, “Sorry Dani”; Second Prize Anne Earney, “Lifelike”; and Runners Up Charles Hashem, “A Fine December Day,” Alyssa Capo, “The River,” and Alexis E. Santi, “It Only Takes One Mistake.”

Bellevue Literary Review Honors Jill Caputo & Prize Winners

The latest issue of Bellevue Literary Review (v11 n1) features the winners of the 2011 BLR Prize. Jill Caputo, whose fiction received an honorable mention, died in August of 2010. In the foreword, Editor-in-Chief Danielle Ofri recounts the prize selection process and discovery of the sad news; BLR‘s decision came five weeks after Caputo’s death, and they had no way to know until attempting to contact her to congratulate her. Jill Caputo’s family gave permission for the publication of her story, and BLR has dedicated this issue in her memory.

Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry, judged by Marie Ponsot
Winner: “Sinkhole” by Janet Tracy Landman
Honorable Mention: “Climacteric” by Cynthia Neely

Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, judged by Andre Dubus III
Winner: “But Now Am Found” by Patti Horvath
Honorable Mention: “Winston Speaks” by Jill Caputo*

Burns Archive Prize for Nonfiction, judged by Jerome Groopman, MD
Winner: “The Tag” by Elizabeth Crowell

The annual BLR Prizes award outstanding writing related to themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. The contest is open each year from February 1 – July 1.

nanomajority & ART364B

nanomajority is interested in the various ways in which artists, writers, and critics intersect (or don’t), inviting “residents” to work on a project on the site for an extended period of time. In this way, nanomajority hopes to provide a flexible, unique space for projects to develop.

nanomajority has been featuring the women of ART364B in separate monthly installments. Current projects include works by Melissa Potter, Kate Clark, Jennifer Musawwir, Miriam Schaer, Marietta Davis, and Adriana Corona.

Danahy Fiction Prize Winner

Heather Sappenfield of Vail, Colorado, has been selected as winner of the fifth annual Danahy Fiction Prize by the editors of Tampa Review. She will receive a cash award of $1,000 and her winning short story, “Indian Prayer,” will be published in Tampa Review 42, forthcoming in summer 2011.

The Danahy Fiction Prize is open to both new and widely published writers, with an annual postmark deadline of November 1. The $15 entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Tampa Review, and all entries submitted are considered for publication.

Michigan Quarterly Review 2010 Literary Prizes

Michigan Quarterly Review has announced the winners of its 2010 literary awards:

Lawrence Foundation Prize

Shimon Tanaka has been awarded the Lawrence Foundation Prize for 2010. The prize is awarded annually by the Editorial Board of MQR to the author of the best short story published that year in the journal. Tanaka’s story, “Destruction Bay,” appeared in the Fall 2010 issue. The prize carries a cash award of $1000.

Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize

Albert Goldbarth is the recipient of the 2010 Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize, which is awarded annually to the author of the best poem appearing that year in the Michigan Quarterly Review. His poem “Our Argument, like the Thunderstorm” appeared as part of a sequence of poems in the Winter 2010 issue.

Page Davidson Clayton Prize for Emerging Poets

Eric Lee is the second recipient of the new Page Davidson Clayton Prize for Emerging Poets, which is awarded annually to the best poet appearing in MQR who has not yet published a book. The award, which is determined by the MQR editors, is in the amount of $500. Eric Lee’s poems “Getting Kicked out of Steamers Restaurant in Fairhope, Alabama” and “Kangaroo or Lion?” were published in the Summer 2010.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with 32 Poems

32 Poems will feature five book recommendations (or an interview with a poet) for each day in April. Their goal is to share favorite poetry books with people and to promote the work of the recommending poet. Below is the month’s schedule thus far:

April 1: John Poch
April 2: Jonterri Gadson
April 3: Eric Weinstein
April 4: M.E. Silverman
April 5: Arielle Greenberg
April 6: Lucy Biederman
April 7: Eric Pankey
April 8: Deborah Ager
April 9: Collin Kelley
April 10: Jennifer Atkinson
April 11: Luke Johnson
April 11: Interview with Terri Witek
April 12: Holly Karapetkova
April 13: TBD
April 15: Carolina Ebeid
April 16: M. Scott Douglass
April 17: Adam Vines
April 18: Elizabeth J. Coleman
April 19: Bernadette Geyer
April 20: Sally Molini
April 21: Interview with Jeffery L. Bahr
April 21: Kelli Russell Agodon
April 22: Jeannine Hall Gailey
April 23: George David Clark
April 24: Rachel Zucker
April 25: Lisa Russ Spaar
April 26-on TBD

2010 Walker Percy Fiction Contest Winners

New Orleans Review has announced the 2010 Walker Percy Fiction Contest winner, runner-up, honorable mentions, and finalists. The final judge was Nancy Lemann. The winning story and the runner-up will be published in the next print issue of the New Orleans Review.

Winner: “Prisoners of the Multiverse,” Jacob Appel

Runner-up: “War Story,” Austin Wilson

Honorable Mention: “The Junior Embalmer,” Jane Stark; “Goat Pharmacy,” Robert Glick; “What We Do,” Cassie Condrey

See website for full list of finalists.